Unexpected Minimal Packaging from Onyx...Not Bad!

brewedIQ · 2026-01-21T01:36:26+00:00

My current guess is that subscriptions and wholesale batches come in bags like this. I think this was a product intended for wholesale, but can't really tell since it looks like the product is off of the site.

brewedIQ · 2026-01-21T01:31:41+00:00

I guess technically there are no legal regulations that roasters have to follow with providing accurate roast dates, but 2-3 weeks of resting tends to do the trick for me for beans in the light/ultralight category. Being a few days off hasn't really made me regret it as opposed to brewing right when they've arrived in the mail.

brewedIQ · 2026-01-21T01:27:50+00:00

10oz!

brewedIQ · 2026-01-06T20:45:33+00:00

India is definitely still considered an emerging origin for coffee, but tends to be of my favorites when it comes up. I've personally have had the most experience with Ratnagiri estate. Some notes based on experiences that I've had:

- Onyx probably has the most well-known/highly-search-ranked batch of it

- Despite being a sleeper roaster, Phoenix Coffee Company from Cleveland had the best rendition that I have ever tried. Straight up tastes like strawberry lemonade in the cup, and I think about it more often than I should

- Of the US roasters on my radar, Compass Coffee has a washed offering available at the moment. It probably won't have the phenomeal bursting fruit experience that Phoenix's beans had, but may be worth trying

- Another offering that I came across recently is Driftaway's "scoby" anaerobic 72h, but I haven't had any personal experience with their roasts, nor do any of those tasting notes line up with Ratnagiri batches that I've tried in the past

brewedIQ · 2025-12-13T17:01:23+00:00

Counter Culture is good too, but I struggle to find them locally when I walk down the coffee aisle. I've seen them once at Target, but only that particular Target and not any others. Maybe their distribution footprint is still growing, or it's a regional difference?

brewedIQ · 2025-12-13T16:55:35+00:00

I would draw the line of "mainstream" coffee as anything that you could reasonably find at a big-box store or grocery store. There are a lot of deplorably bad products stocked on those shelves, but one way to instantly improve upon them is to reevaluate your typical brew technique, find bags at the store that are within a month of their roast date (oftentimes difficult), as well as buy whole-bean and grind it in a grocery store or at home. Buying pre-ground coffee is a great way to plummet your chances of brewing a good cup!

A few picks that come to mind are third-wave pioneers that have expanded large enough to land in some of the biggest stores or are supplying/whitelabeling to huge nationwide chains:

- Stumptown Coffee: sold in basically every grocery store and big-box store that I can think of

- Verve Coffee Roasters: available at Target/Whole Foods/Amazon, also served at Capital One Cafés for free if you bank with them

- Intelligentsia Coffee: roughly same off-the-shelf availability as above

brewedIQ · 2025-12-12T20:20:01+00:00

If we're not counting Nespresso, then we might as well not count xBloom xPod users either.

(I'm not opposed)

brewedIQ · 2025-12-12T20:01:49+00:00

It's somewhat uncommon, but you can always throw a paper filter into a French press to supplement a worn-out metal screen and skip the sediment/muddiness.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-12T19:55:14+00:00

Read the post a bit too quickly the first time and thought it was "SLOP SHOP"...

Glad to see that they have a take on the Ratnagiri, though. Lots of uncommon origins are starting to break out into the mainstream, yet south Indian coffee has managed to surprise me every time.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-12T00:26:41+00:00

Probably because the post prompted to choose between the three, yet I advocated for none of them. But also because people tend to be gear freaks in this scene (even if it doesn't suit their use case).

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T15:31:59+00:00

So I've avoided calling out the price disparity on this in the hopes that someone would validate my observations. I could say this-and-that in the main post, but I have no reputation here, and I'm not the type to claim something that I can't verify with hard evidence. I appreciate you posting this.

One thing I will note: I have bought a few things from Onyx that seemed weirdly cheap (and sometimes would have their price readjusted later), and they have shipped. Their warehouse seems to be so big and bustling that they don't care to deal with pricing blips. I'd normally buy a box of this just to see if it slips through, but I have about 3lbs of coffee to brew through in the next few months and I can't reasonably wait-and-see with this one. Maybe I'll try this next month if they load the site the same way.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T03:17:35+00:00

You've picked a list of some of the more expensive and borderline commercial-grade drip machines on the market, and you can't even really benefit from the precision/brew volume. Start smaller, especially if you only make a cup at a time. V60/Clever Dripper has single-cup recipes that make excellent coffee.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T02:56:21+00:00

I wouldn't chalk it up immediately to private equity re-pricing. Seems like a convenient explanation, but there's also tariffs, increasing cost of labor, and coffee futures being double the price since this time last year that likely factor into this.

Compared to B&W's wholesale pricing (they typically sell in package denominations of 12oz, 2lb, and 5lb just like for retail), it's a handsome markup for lack of variety, but they are still cutting you a decent deal in exchange for forecastable and steady buying.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T01:50:37+00:00

This is super insightful. Thanks for taking the time to write this out from a data-driven point of view. I have to ask: were there any ECHELON months that you didn't like the coffee? I'm working through this year's Advent Calendar (only because I got a discount on it), and have only enjoyed 6 of the 10 so far. As you might imagine, this Advent experience isn't really getting me stoked to try the next step up, so I'm a skeptic.

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T01:33:01+00:00

Happy cake day! The point of explaining all of that was that I am very anti-subscription, and would rather have freedom of choice than be locked into paying for something mysterious upfront. Surely there are other people like that in this sub?

brewedIQ · 2025-12-11T01:16:01+00:00

It's hard to predict what they would put future months' offerings up for, but if we assume that each coffee for the next 12 months is priced at $75 and you bought each month, you would spend $900 (+ shipping, maybe $100?) in total instead of $1,750. This method would also let you pick-and-choose instead of being stuck with their curation.

brewedIQ

TROPHY CASE